It All Seemed Harmless
by Subject 0
Summary: Square root of 912.04 is 30.2. It all seemed harmless. One-shot.


Just a quick one-shot based off of the end of the Overlord DLC (which is awesome. Totally recommend!). Please leave a review, and I hope you enjoy the story!

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><p>|l <strong>It All Seemed Harmless<strong> l|

_"Quiet. Please, make it stop. Make it stop..."_

His eyelids were peeled back by hooks that dragged beneath his sockets. His dried tears formed two dark beige streaks that drew down his pale cheeks. Several tubes were forced down his windpipe, the outlines of their mass visible in his throat. Every time he tried to swallow, he gagged on the devices. It instinctively forced him to cry. But when he tried to blink, the hooks sank deeper into his flesh, a hot, searing pain crawling beneath his skin. But now he couldn't cry anymore. He had no tears left. He stared absently into space, his gaze never shifting for fear that the slightest movement would only inflict more pain.

His hands were suspended lazily in mid-air like a puppet's, dangling from wires that fastened to his arms. The circular plates stuck to his body covered patches of red skin, most likely lesions. A spiked metallic collar around his neck kept him in place, restricted his head movement, kept him from breathing normally. A tight cylinder compacted around his stomach, forcing him to suck in. His ribs were visible, and the curvature in his abdomen nearly made the thickness of his stomach nonexistent.

He didn't even look human anymore.

"What've you done?" she muttered, anger flashing behind those crimson red irises. She turned to him, a look of pure disgust crossing her countenance. "How can you even call yourself a human?"

"I did what had to be done," he said, his voice confident and assertive, as if he believed he was doing to right thing. "I did what everyone else was too afraid of."

"What had to be done?" Shepard barked in retaliation, viciously slamming his back against the wall. "You_ used_ him like a guinea pig!" She pulled out her Carnifex. The barrel was still warm. Pressing the tip beneath his chin, she snarled, "You'd better give me a damn good reason why I shouldn't just shoot your brains out like a worthless piece of vorcha trash."

Gavin put his hands up defensively, his open palms facing Shepard. "Hngh!" he grunted, swallowing hard as he felt the blunt shaft of the Carnifex press hard against his Adam's apple. It was still warm. He curled his lip and jutted his jaw to the side. "I... I did it for the good of mankind..." he mumbled as loudly as he could, a few beads of sweat dripping down the side of his face. "I thought that I could have David communicate with the geth. I thought he was the missing link. I thought he could control them!"

"You thought wrong."

"Did I?"

He had balls to even respond. She jammed the blunt tip of her pistol against his gullet. "You did."

He nearly choked on his tongue, emitting a hacking cough from the back of his throat. Flaring his nostrils and taking in a deep breath, he mustered, "Who are you to judge?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm holding the gun," she replied scathingly, her voice filled with venom.

"Just look at how much I have achieved!" he reasoned, pride swelling within his chest. "We have never come this close to unlocking the secrets of the geth mind. With David, I can communicate with the geth! I just need more time! Think how many potential lives we could save! Millions of mothers would not have to mourn the deaths of their sons. There would be so much less strife between the geth and humanity!"

For a moment, his words rang soundly in her ears. Her eyebrows arched high enough to disappear beneath her hairline. Maybe he was right. Obviously this was an unethical way to conduct his research, but did the ends justify the means? Millions of lives saved at the cost of one? On paper it looked fine. But she knew that it wasn't the same in real life. After considering his sentiments for a moment, she quickly dismissed them with a shake of the head. "The geth aren't a threat," Shepard finally said, the thought of Legion brushing her mind. "They don't want to start a war. And the ones that did have been reprogrammed and assimilated."

"The Alliance does not know that," he replied.

"Then I'll _tell_ them."

A smug smirk crept across his complexion. "Just like you told the Council of the Reapers?"

She scowled, wrinkles forming between her slanted brows. Delivering a swift punch to his stomach, she stepped back and coiled her arms over her chest. She watched Gavin keel forwards and gasp for air, painfully clutching his abdomen. She lifted her chin and stared down at him from an angle. "Go on then. I'm listening. Tell me what you're going to do."

He felt weak, as if all the air in his body had just been punched out of his gut. His stomach churned and his knees wobbled, his legs threatening to collapse from the strain. Staring up at Shepard with a pained expression, he mumbled, "I... if I can communicate with the geth, there is a chance that we can undo much of what happened two years ago. We can put those differences behind us. We might even be able to enlist the geth's help against the _Reapers_."

"You're using a lot of 'might's and 'maybe's," Shepard retorted. "Are you saying you're not sure?"

"We can never be positive of the outcome of any discovery, Commander."

"If you do it right you can."

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple. As much as I would love to guarantee peace and prosperity across the galaxy once I have completed my research, I cannot." Her gaze thinned on him, her patience quickly trying. "But just think of the outcome!" he spurted out to save himself. "Think of what we could _do. _Even if we do not achieve it, the fact that we have a _chance _to achieve it isn't work fighting for?"

"No. It's not. Not when we're reduced to _that_." Shepard pointed her index finger accusingly at David, as if to remind Gavin of his failure. She stepped aside and let him fully take in what misery he had inflicted on his own brother before continuing, "A salarian once told me that science should never be applied to any species capable of higher thinking. That testing on humans was only used by brute force researchers. That it was sloppy. Disgusting. _Unethical. _It had no place in proper science." She paused. "I thought he was just being sentimental at the time. But now I know better. I know better than to put my trust into _pathetic, worthless, gutless _scientists that take shortcuts to get what they want." She was silent, and let her words sink in.

Gavin was going to interrupt her, but stopped himself short when David came into his view. He felt every muscle in his body tense, a feeling of horror and revulsion boring through his nerves. As if it was the first time he had seen David in this condition. Every word that left Shepard's mouth plunged the knife deeper into Gavin's soul. He felt a sharp pain grow in his side, his eyes tingling like they had been pricked. "I..." he hushed, unable to even relay an answer. He looked at David sympathetically and opened his mouth, as if trying to say something. But he knew there weren't any words he could say that could atone for what he did.

_"Square root of 906.1 equals..."_

A tingle ran down Gavin's spine, causing the hair on the back of his head to stand on end. He felt his stomach leap into his throat as he desperately tried to answer, "... 30.1..." He looked at his own hands, the hands that had taken so many lives and ruined countless more. All for his own selfish desire. "What... what have I done? What have I done to you, David?" He looked at his brother, his eyes pleading for forgiveness. But David merely stared into space, his gaze never shifting. "I'm... I'm so sorry..."

_"Quiet. Please. Make it stop."_

"You did this to him," Shepard said. "To your own brother. He trusted you. He put his _faith _in you. And you_ betrayed_ him. The only person in the world who loved you unconditionally. You used him like a lab rat and tried to make him your little experiment for Cerberus." She clenched her fist tightly, suppressing the urge to just punch him in the face. "He'll never be the same again because of you. He'll never know peace. Stop this. For his sake, and yours."

His eyes watered. He crumbled to his knees, tears falling freely from his cheeks, gathering on the bottom of his chin. He cupped his hands over his face and sobbed silently, his breaths short and forced. "I never wanted things to end like this... I just... I only wanted..."

_"Quiet. Please. Make it stop."_

He muffled his faint cries. Gavin was no longer a scientist. He was a broken man. A man with no morals. A man that valued nothing as sacred. A man that had turned on his _own blood_.

_"Square root of 912.04 is 30.2. It all seemed harmless..."_

__"Square root of 912.04 is 30.2. It all seemed harmless..."__


End file.
